Levant was interrogated by a government bureaucrat this past January â€” an interrogationÂ he videotaped and posted on YouTube. Levant’s mocking, impassioned performance, which challenged the HRC’s very legitimacy, was viewed hundreds of thousands of times, made Levant an overnight free speech hero, and ignited a national debate about Canada’s beloved policy of multiculturalism.

Levant bloggedÂ earlier this week, “Using government lawyers and taxpayers’ money, they have been pursuing me, infringing on my natural rights of free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. According to Access to Information documents, there are 15 bureaucrats working on my file. I’m a major crime scene.”

His legal bills topped $100,000, and he estimates the cases have cost Alberta taxpayers $500,000.

Finally, on August 6, the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities complaint wasdismissed by the Alberta HRC. Levant had “won” what he’d taken to calling “the first blasphemy case in Canada in 80 years.”

The accused’s response wasn’t one of jubilation.

Anyone who finds this surprising hasn’t been following the case on theblogosphereÂ and certainly doesn’t know Ezra Levant the way many Canadians do. The brash, outspoken Levant is a principled provocateur whose values â€” liberty, small government, individuality, the free market â€” are considered “too American” by the nation’s liberal elite. (His friend of ten years, leftist comedian Rick Mercer, has called him â€” not unaffectionately â€” “without a doubt, one of the most aggravating men on this earth.”)

The 11-page government report into my activities is a breathtakingly arrogant document. In it, Pardeep Gundara, a low-level bureaucrat, assumes the role of editor-in-chief for the entire province of Alberta. He went through our magazine article and gave his own thoughts on the cartoons, and pronounced on our magazine’s decision to publish them. The government’s wannabe journalist makes a spelling error, he gets facts wrong, and he’s obviously not good with deadlines. We’d never have hired him at our magazine. But the laugh is on us â€” he’s apparently our boss, and the boss of all journalists in Alberta.

[…]

That is not acceptable to me. I am not interested in Gundara’s views about the cartoons. I’m not interested in learning his personal rules of thumb for when I can or can’t express myself. This is Canada, not Saudi Arabia.

When Soharwardy dropped his complaint, Levant, a practicing defamation lawyer, had publicly mused about suing the imam in civil court to recoup his legal costs. (HRC complainants have their legal fees paid by the state.)

But now Levant tells Pajamas Media, “My lawyers say there is no redress allowed in terms of suing my HRC antagonists â€” the statute forbids it. I may have that option in some of the 17 other legal assaults I’m facing.”

Levant has become Canada’s unofficial spokesman on the issue of “soft jihad” and lawfare,Â addressing conferencesÂ and testifying before aÂ U.S. Congressional task force. His book about his travails and about freedom of speech at home and abroad is due out from a prestigious Canadian publisher this fall.

He tells Pajamas Media: “I’ve got a bunch of Access to Information requests in to the Alberta HRC. They’ve given me 200 pages, but are refusing to hand over hundreds more â€” including any emails about me and some investigator’s notes.”

The case that made him famous is officially over, but for Ezra Levant, the fight is just beginning.

Gee, who would have ever thought that human rights commissions would be used by totalitarians to intimidate their political enemies? Well, apart from anyone with any familiarity with history and an appreciation for the arguments for the rule of law, that is. Human rights commissions operate outside of the court system, respect no traditional reason-based rules of evidence, and judge scientifically non-investigable matters such as hurt feelings and offended sensibilities. These third-world style troikas are tailor made for cretins who have no respect for other people’s consciences and want the police to judge disputes about what kind of art is offensive to fictional characters.Â Â

The particular totalitarian ignoramus you see above is Imam Syed Soharwardy of Calgary, who has applied to the Albert Human Rights Commission to punish the Western Standard. From publisherÂ Ezra Levant:

He asked the police to arrest me for publishing the cartoons. They calmly explained to him that’s not what police in Canada do.

So then he went to a far less liberal institution than the police: theÂ Alberta Human Rights Commission. Unlike the Calgary Police Service, they didn’t have the common sense to show him the door.

Earlier this month, I received a copy of Soharwardy’s rambling, hand-scrawled complaint. It is truly an embarrassing document. He briefly complains that we published the Danish cartoons. But the bulk of his complaint is that we dared to try to justify it – that we dared to disagree with him.

Wait until “Silence!” Syed finds out that women are allowed to drive here.